Oil prices extended losses on Monday, September 2, as investors anticipate OPEC+ output will rise from October and signs of weak demand in China and the United States, the world’s biggest oil consumers, raised concerns about future consumption growth.
Brent crude futures fell 56 cents, or 0.7%, to $76.37 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 45 cents, or 0.6%, to $73.10 a barrel.
The losses follow a 0.3% decline in Brent crude last week and a 1.7% decline in WTI.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, told Reuters that the group was close to moving forward with a planned increase in oil output from October 2024.
Eight OPEC+ members are set to raise output by 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October, as part of a plan to start phasing out the latest tranche of 2.2 million bpd of output cuts and continue further reductions until the end of 2025.
Both Brent and WTI crude have suffered two straight months of losses as economic concerns in China and the United States offset disruptions in Libyan supplies and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
In Libya, Arabian Gulf Oil Company has resumed production of up to 120,000 bpd to meet domestic needs, while exports remain halted, engineers said on Sunday, after a dispute between armed factions shut most of the country’s oilfields.
Gloom over demand growth in China deepened after an official survey on Saturday showed manufacturing activity there fell to a six-month low in August as retail prices at factories fell and orders were weak, although a private survey covering smaller, export-dependent companies on Monday showed signs of a tentative recovery in the same month.
U.S. oil consumption slowed in June to its lowest seasonal level since the COVID pandemic in 2020, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed on Friday.
